The Uprates: 433 Megawatts Without a New PlantNarrow moat
Vistra (VST) — moat facet
Seven per cent more nuclear from equipment that has not been installed, sold for twenty years before it exists.
An uprate is the closest thing the nuclear industry has to free capacity. You replace equipment, improve efficiency, demonstrate to the regulator that the plant can safely run at higher output, and the same reactor produces more megawatts.
Vistra has agreed to add 433 megawatts of uprate capacity across Perry, Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley1 — 213 at Perry, 80 at Davis-Besse and 140 at Beaver Valley2. Meta has contracted for all of it under the same twenty-year structure as the operating output, with delivery beginning in 2031 and reaching full volume by the end of 20343.
The arithmetic is unusually favourable. Four hundred and thirty-three megawatts is about 7% more nuclear capacity, added at a fraction of what new capacity costs, on sites that are already licensed, already staffed and already connected to the transmission system. There is no interconnection queue to join and no community to persuade. It is the only route to new American nuclear megawatts that operates on a timescale investors can see.
It is also, notably, contracted before it exists. Meta has agreed to buy output from equipment that has not been installed, at a plant whose regulator has not yet approved the higher rating, delivering seven years from now. That says something about how tight the buyer believes the market for carbon-free firm power will be.
The constraint is that uprates are small by construction. Seven per cent more from the existing fleet does not change the shape of the company, and the technique cannot be repeated indefinitely — each reactor has a practical ceiling, and the easy ones tend to be done first.
Contracted to Meta before the equipment is installed, with delivery from 2031. Roughly 7% more nuclear capacity added at a fraction of what new capacity costs, on sites that need no new licence and no interconnection.
213 MW at Perry, 80 at Davis-Besse and 140 at Beaver Valley, all sold to Meta for twenty years with delivery from 2031. Roughly 7% more nuclear at a fraction of new-build cost. Watch the NRC approvals.
Source: Vistra Corp. Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025 ↗- ReportedVistra has agreed to add 433 megawatts of uprate capacity across Perry, Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley — 213 at Perry, 80 at Davis-Besse and 140 at Beaver ValleyVistra and Meta announce agreements to support nuclear plants in PJM, 9 January 2026 — twenty-year power purchase agreements under which Vistra will supply Meta with a total of 2,609 MW of carbon-free power and capacity from its PJM nuclear plants: 1,268 MW of energy and capacity from Perry and 908 MW from Davis-Besse, plus 213 MW of uprate energy and capacity from Perry, 80 MW from Davis-Besse and 140 MW from Beaver Valley; delivery commences on a portion of the operating energy and capacity in late 2026 with full delivery by year end 2027, and uprate delivery commences in 2031 with full delivery by year end 2034; Vistra agreed to be the preferred power partner for Helix Digital Infrastructure, a newly formed company designed to develop infrastructure for AI-oriented hyperscalers. Meta contracted up to 6.6 GW of nuclear power across agreements with Vistra, Oklo and TerraPower announced the same day — January 2026 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedVistra has agreed to add 433 megawatts of uprate capacity across Perry, Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley — 213 at Perry, 80 at Davis-Besse and 140 at Beaver ValleyVistra and Meta announce agreements to support nuclear plants in PJM, 9 January 2026 — twenty-year power purchase agreements under which Vistra will supply Meta with a total of 2,609 MW of carbon-free power and capacity from its PJM nuclear plants: 1,268 MW of energy and capacity from Perry and 908 MW from Davis-Besse, plus 213 MW of uprate energy and capacity from Perry, 80 MW from Davis-Besse and 140 MW from Beaver Valley; delivery commences on a portion of the operating energy and capacity in late 2026 with full delivery by year end 2027, and uprate delivery commences in 2031 with full delivery by year end 2034; Vistra agreed to be the preferred power partner for Helix Digital Infrastructure, a newly formed company designed to develop infrastructure for AI-oriented hyperscalers. Meta contracted up to 6.6 GW of nuclear power across agreements with Vistra, Oklo and TerraPower announced the same day — January 2026 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedMeta has contracted for all of it under the same twenty-year structure as the operating output, with delivery beginning in 2031 and reaching full volume by the end of 2034Vistra and Meta announce agreements to support nuclear plants in PJM, 9 January 2026 — twenty-year power purchase agreements under which Vistra will supply Meta with a total of 2,609 MW of carbon-free power and capacity from its PJM nuclear plants: 1,268 MW of energy and capacity from Perry and 908 MW from Davis-Besse, plus 213 MW of uprate energy and capacity from Perry, 80 MW from Davis-Besse and 140 MW from Beaver Valley; delivery commences on a portion of the operating energy and capacity in late 2026 with full delivery by year end 2027, and uprate delivery commences in 2031 with full delivery by year end 2034; Vistra agreed to be the preferred power partner for Helix Digital Infrastructure, a newly formed company designed to develop infrastructure for AI-oriented hyperscalers. Meta contracted up to 6.6 GW of nuclear power across agreements with Vistra, Oklo and TerraPower announced the same day — January 2026 · publ. January 2026 · source ↗